About this Lord who is full of
compassion, gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy. Peter sure
felt that way, and he wrote that. We'll read it here in a moment. Our Lord said one time to the
disciples, He said, How long must I bear with you? How long? He has to all our lives, doesn't
he? I'm so thankful that he is long-suffering. Psalm 86 said
he's long-suffering. You know, if we could ever really get a
hold of just how long-suffering, just how merciful our God has
been to us, we might really worship Him. We just get a little glimpse. Every now and then we do, by
His grace and by His mercy, we get a little glimpse of just
how merciful He's been to us, and how longsuffering, how He's
put up with us through all of our unbelief and sin. If we could just remember His
mercy, we might be able to truly love and worship Him. I want
you to look with me. I hope, by God's grace, I hope
he'll speak to us tonight. This message should be of great
comfort to every Simon Peter out there, every one who's rash
of speech and full of unbelief and sin and hasty in his actions. Anybody out there like that?
I want you to look with me at the life of this man who was
chosen by God Almighty, and I want us to see, by God's grace, the
great mercy that was shown to this man throughout his life,
and finally, the salvation of his soul. And I want to see if
you can relate to this man's life. Now, the Scripture says
in 1 Corinthians 1, we dealt with it one night, it says, Not
many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things, foolish things or ones, people, the weak ones, the base
ones, despised people, things that are nothing, nobodies, that
no flesh should glory in his presence, and we couldn't have
a greater example of God's choosing than this man, Simon Peter here.
Look at Luke chapter 5 with me. Beginning in Luke chapter 5,
let's look at a few verses here. Old Simon, old Simon, young Simon, really,
he's a perfect example of God's long-suffering, his mercy. and whom he chooses, whom he
saves. I hope the Lord will help us. Luke chapter 5, beginning with
verse 1. I'm going to see if I can give
you this picture here, if the Lord will help me. It came to pass, verse 1, that
as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. Now,
everywhere Christ went, he drew a crowd. great throngs of people
pressed upon him that he had a hard time getting around, and
he was a real well-sought-after and public figure. But they pressed upon him, pressed
him so far down into this one place that he stood by the lake,
and they pressed up against this lake. Now imagine this picture,
all these people pressing up against him to hear him down
by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two ships standing,
that is, tied up, I don't know if they were up on the shore
or at a dock, I don't know, but standing by the lake, two ships.
But the fishermen were gone out of the ships and were washing
their nets. Men fished with great big huge rope nets back then,
and they had to wash them down after they fished with them.
And he entered into one of the ships, a certain ship, just happened
to enter in this man's ship. Now, he went down, he knew what
ship he was going to enter in before time began. But it says
he entered into one of the ships. Now, here's the picture. This
crowd of people is pressing the Lord down to the lakeside, and
they want to hear from him. And he's going to speak to them,
but they're so pressed in against him, so close, back to the water,
that he sees these boats, and he gets in one of the boats,
and over here are two fishermen, or four fishermen, actually.
whose boats they belonged to. And they're over there washing
their nets, and our Lord gets in one of the boats. He entered
into one of the ships, which was a man named Simon, a young
fisherman named Simon. And he said to the man, it says
there in verse 3, he prayed, or he called to the man that
he would thrust out a little from the lake. He said, now picture
this. Here this man and this big crowd
comes down to the lake, and here Simon and his buddies are out
there washing their nets. They've been fishing all night
long. They hear this big crowd of people and they look up and
they say, what's going on here? And they come down and all of
a sudden this man gets in his boat. And Simon thinks, what
is going on here? What does he think he's doing?
And then the Lord says, shove me out a little bit. And he thinks,
I bet you might not have said this out loud, But in the presence
of majesty, maybe it was his voice, I don't know. I don't
know really, I'm just speculating how he reacted to this. But Peter
thought, who does he think he is? What's going on here? What
is going on here? And he's going to be saying that
the rest of his life. But anyway, he says to him here,
He said, Thrust me out there, and so the Lord sat down, and
Peter shoved him out a little bit and tied the rope off so
he could be out from the people to teach them. And the Lord sat
down and taught the people out of the ships. I'm sure Peter,
Simon sat down and listened to what he had to say. Now when
he quit speaking, verse 4, he said unto Simon, Let's go fishing. Simon, let's launch this boat
out there and let's do a little fishing. Let down your nets for
a draft. Now, in verse five, Simon, I'm
just speculating, but he was a man now. He was just an old
raw bone grub fisherman here, a young man. And he, you know
how rash he was with his mouth, even when the Lord, when the
Lord revealed himself to him. I can just imagine now, he said,
now teacher, He's saying master here, not in the sense that we
know the word master. He's saying teacher. That's what the word
means. Now, teacher, you know something about teaching. But
I know something about fishing. And we've been fishing all night
long. But nevertheless, I'll teach
you something. At your work, they say, we've
fished all night long. We know what we're doing. Nevertheless,
that's what you want to do. That's what we'll do. So they
went out fishing. And verse 6, And when they had
done this, they let the nets down. It doesn't say any time
at all. It'll last. They let the nets down. They enclosed
a great multitude. They were jumping. The fish were
jumping into that net. Bang. Jumping into it. And their
net began to break. And they started hollering. Simon
and his brother Andrew were part of it. And Simon and Andrew,
James, John, help! Come here! Bring your nets! It's
a big school here. And they came. They hollered
at their partners. Verse 7, And they came, and they
filled the other ship, and both of them started sinking, so full
of fish. And verse 8, When Simon Peter
saw this, he says he fell on his knees. Now, he must have
heard something in the man's voice when he was preaching.
I don't know. But it says he was in the presence of somebody.
And he knew it, and he said, Depart from me. I'm a sinful,
Lord, I'm an old fisherman. You just go on down the road
now. I'm an old, dirty, rotten fisherman. You must be somebody. Depart
from me. And it says, verse 9, Because
they were astonished, I read one writer says they were fearful.
What is this? Now, they'd been fishing all
night long now. They knew the best spots. They
knew that lake like the back of their hand, and this man said,
Let it down here, and they let it down. They got thick, and
they, What is going on here? And they trembled and shook in
the presence of this man. He said, They were astonished,
and verse ten, And so was James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto them, and
they were shaken in their boots. Jesus said unto them, verse ten,
said unto Simon, Don't be afraid. Fear not. From now on, you're
going to catch men." And when they brought their ships to land,
verse 11, they forsook all and followed him. But they got to
land. They rowed the ships into the shore, and they got all these
fish in there, and the Lord jumped out of the boat and started walking
off down the ship, and they just all got out and started following. Just start following it. You
get the picture here? They just start following it.
Now, I want you to look a little bit at the life of this man,
Simon. Not much detail about this man,
not much background is told about him. He was a fisherman, and
we can survive some things from this. A fisherman back then was
nobody special. On the contrary. Society back
then was much like it is now. There were classes. They had,
you had politicians, you had middle class people, upper class
people, politicians and so forth, dignitaries, rulers, you had
middle class people, you had low class people, you had blue
collar workers, you had white collar workers. Sportsmen, they
were big on sports in Greece and so forth. As a society, much
like it is now. A little more primitive, but
much like it is now. And fishermen, they were rough
and gruff, plain talking. Cussing, no good, low down, rough
fellas, I mean rough to the cob fellas, fishermen, nobody, dock
workers, nobody. The Scripture says, we quoted
a moment ago, it says, not many wise men after the flesh. Old Peter wasn't very wise. I
just don't believe that he had any learning. Well, he said that
about him later on. Where'd these men get letters, having never
learned? Now, where'd they get this knowledge, having never
learned letters? They'd never been to school. We know them.
We've seen them down by the lake, old fishermen. Peter wasn't very
wise. Oh, he knew something about boats
and nets and baits. Big deal. Big deal. Not many wise men, and he wasn't
very wise. He wouldn't have been fishing
all night long if he'd been very wise. He'd got him a better job
if he didn't do something. And he wasn't very mighty. He
says, not many mighty. He wasn't very, very mighty. No real power or influence with
anybody. He might could fight somebody
with his fists, but he wasn't very mighty with power or influence. Not many noble, the Scripture
says. Oh, he wasn't noble all right.
Uh-uh. He was thought by the society
to be an ignorant, foolish man, a weak-minded fellow, a nobody,
a base, despised nobody. You know, if he'd have lived
around this area, I'll tell you what he'd have been. He'd have
been a truck driver. He'd have owned a filling station.
He'd have been a diesel mechanic. Just, you know, plain old, ordinary,
blue-collar fellow. He knew his work, but that's
about it. If we're honest with ourselves,
we have to say the same thing. We don't know much, do we? Just
plain old, you'd be in a railroad or, you know, a brakeman. Who'd
want my world? Doesn't know anybody. But God. His man was a chosen vessel of
God's mercy, a chosen vessel of honor under our Lord. And
the Scripture says, blessed is the man whom God chooses. The
happiest man on the face of the earth, the most blessed, valuable,
he was nobody all right, but to God God sent his precious
son down here to die for him. He was somebody to God. Oh, not
in himself, but because God made him somebody. Chosen vessel of
God. So the Lord said to this poor
young fisherman one day, he said, follow me. Follow me. And he did. He didn't know what
he was getting into. He didn't know what he was about
to get into. Now think about this with me.
Think about this picture. old. I keep saying old, but he's
young. He's a young man, about my age, in his early thirties
or mid-thirties. Young Simon Bar-Jonah. He was
the son of a man named Jonah. He'd probably fished all his
life. He and his brother Andrew. That's probably the only thing
they knew. They grew up down at the lake, fishing. That's
the only thing they knew. And here comes this young teacher,
out of the blue, out of the blue. He came down the lake one day. And just up and said, Henry,
it should be like me, if you put this in modern day thought.
Christ walking by, young man walking down the roads one day.
And you see him out there, and who's that? And he hollers, Henry,
sword! Follow me. And Henry, Roberta
Henry, just drops his tools and everything. And he takes off
down the road behind this fellow, and Roberta says, Wait! You've
got three limp jobs coming up! You can't leave! That's what
this young man did. You see how we've got to put
this in reality. He just dropped everything. His family, his boats,
his nets, his friends, everybody. His wife, he had a wife. Peter
did. Don't you know she said, What's going on here? And he
left this young teacher that just came down the road one day.
and walked along behind him, left everything. What a fool! What an idiot! No. What grace! What mercy! What power of the man walking
down that road! There's no mere mortal man here. What power! And old Simon leaves
everything to follow this mysterious teacher. I bet you now, he was
just a, we're going to see this as we go along, he was just a
man. Peter was just a man. Oh, he
was a weak man. Simon, I don't want to call him
Simon, he was just simple Simon. That's what he was, simple Simon.
And he, I'm sure later on, he got in behind him and so did
James and John and Andrew, his brother, got in behind the Lord
and they're walking on down the road. And I'm just certain that
Peter, after they walked a little ways, started going, What am
I doing? Where are we going? Well, what's happening to me? What have I done? I just know
he did now. He was a man. But as time goes
on, he watches this man. You know, he watches this man.
He walks along and they're walking down the road one day, the next
day perhaps. And there on the side of the
road is that dirty, rotten scoundrel named Matthew, a publican. Now,
Matthew had come down there to Peter to collect taxes one day.
He hated him. Called him an S.O.B. He didn't
like him. Nobody liked publicans back then.
That's just the way it was. Now, Peter didn't like him, this
gruff old fisherman. And he saw the Lord one day just
walk up to that Matthew and say, follow me. And he did this all
down the road. Nathaniel, come on. Go on. And Peter and James and John,
they were just marveling. They were watching all this.
Watched this man move and sway and call other people to himself. Some he knew like old Matthew.
And he thought to himself, I don't know what it is about this man.
There's something about this man. I can't quite put my finger
on it. Something irresistible about this man. I can't quite—something
powerful. I'm just going to keep following
him. Let's see what happens. So old Simon, he was in the company
of all his old friends, and they were following this teacher down
the road, probably at a distance. Now, this is the way it was now.
I'm not saying anything that didn't happen that night, really.
They're walking along behind the Lord. The Lord's probably
ahead of them, and they're all walking along, and they're—what
do you think about it? Nathaniel said, Well, do you
see how he knew I was over on the fig tree? He didn't see me. And Matthew said, Boy, I felt
his power when he called me. And they walked along talking
about it. What do you think about it? Simon, I don't know what
to make of him yet. Let's keep following. So they
walked along behind him. The days went by. They started
seeing him heal people, lepers, lepers. And when these lepers
came, I'm sure the disciples and the Lord just... And these
people walked away clean. You get the picture here now. Casting out devils, people falling
at the mouth and wallowing, raised a dead man. They saw this, these
men, these disciples. My pastor one time called them
his motley crew of fishermen. And they walked in the temple.
Here these old gruff fishermen walked in the temple one day,
and all these doctors and lawyers, you know, were all dressed in
their robes with their phylacteries and everything on them. And the
Lord, this plain man, embarrassed them all, put them all to silence. They all, you know, asked Him
question after question, and they heard His marvelous wisdom,
put these doctors and lawyers and learned men to shame, hanging
their heads, walking. And they got They were marveling
at this man, these disciples were, especially old Simon. They
heard his majestic voice and great wisdom up on the mountain.
They saw him feed five thousand, four thousand with just a few
loaves and fishes. They saw a great crowd sit silently
in awe of this man's speech. They heard his voice of authority.
And they were amazed, especially old simple Simon. And all this
time, days and weeks and months passed by, they followed this
man. Simon began to understand some things. Now, this is a picture
of us now. Simon, all this time, he began
to understand some of the things about this man. He began to understand
this is no mere moral man. This is no ordinary man here.
I don't know who he is right yet. But he isn't any mortal
man. He began to think, could this
be? You know, everybody had heard
about the Messiah. Everybody. Every little Jewish child heard
the words Messiah. They heard all religious people
back then were talking about the Messiah, praying for the
Messiah to come. It was part of their society,
you know. It was their great hope to deliver them from Roman
bondage, the Messiah. And Peter thought, He could be. He could be. I don't know. Look over at Luke chapter 8 with
me. Luke chapter 8. Look down at verse 22. One day,
they were out in a boat again, traveling somewhere, and it came
to pass on a certain day, verse 22 of Luke 8, that he went into
a ship with his disciples, and he said unto them, Let's go over
unto the other side of the lake. And they lost four. But as they
sailed, he fell asleep. And there came a storm, down
a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filled with water.
The boats started filling with water, and they were in jeopardy.
They were in danger. Verse 24, And they came to him and woke
him up, Master, Master, we're perishing, teacher. And he arose
and got up quietly, rubbed his eyes, walked out. I mean, I mean, I'm talking waves
crashing over the boat, and the boat going like this, and the
Master just walks out. Peace! Be still. And look at this. He said, where
is your faith? Joe, what do you suppose their
reaction was? They all hit the deck. What manner of man is this? Whose presence are we in? He commands even the winds and
the seas. What manner... and old Simon
thought, It's got to be Him. It's got to be Him. This has
got to be the Christ, and He believed more strongly. It's
got to be Him. And they followed on. They got on the other side
of the ship, or the lake, and they followed on. And they watched
Him. He went all the way across the ocean to cast out one devil,
and they got back in the ship and went someplace else. They
thought, How did He know? And look at chapter 8, verse
49. Verse 49. Now, this is the story of him
healing, raising Jairus, his daughter, the ruler of the synagogue. You remember, we'll look back
to verse 41. There came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler
of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus' feet. And he besought
him that he would come into his house. He had one daughter, one
only daughter, twelve years old, and she was dying. But as he
tried to get to Christ, they thronged him and he couldn't
get to him. The crowd pressed against him,
couldn't get to him to talk to the Lord, you know. And then
they moved on, the crowd moved on and so forth. And then verse
49, while the Lord, verse 48, he said unto her, no, verse 49,
excuse me, while the Lord spake, he healed somebody else. But
while the Lord spake, Somebody came from the ruler of the synagogue's
house, saying, Jairus, your daughter is dead. You don't need to bother
the master now. Don't bother him now. Come on,
homie, she's dead. But when Jesus heard that, now
there's a big crowd of people here, and this man had just come
up to you, she's dead. But he heard. Somebody heard.
Somebody had his eye on the situation the whole time. that all-seeing,
omnipotent eye. When Jesus heard it, He answered
and went up to this man, talking to him and said, verse 50, He
said, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made whole.
And when He came to the man's house, He suffered no man to
go in and say, Peter. He chose old Peter. He said,
Peter. He had all of His disciples around Him. They said, Peter,
I'm going to show you something. Come on with me. James, come
on, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And verse 52,
And all were weeping and bewailing this daughter. And he said, Don't
weep, she's not dead, she's sleeping. And they laughed and scorned.
It wasn't the mother and the daughter, it wasn't the disciples
laughing, it was the people all around. They laughed. Crazy man. The disciples weren't laughing. Well, they left him to scorn,
but they put him, get out of my sight, go on, out of my way.
And he walked into this room with the mother and the daughter,
her mother and the father, and Peter, James, and John, these
three disciples. Verse fifty-four, or verse fifty-five. Fifty-four. And he took that
young girl, that twelve-year-old girl, by the hand, and he called,
saying, Arise! Arise!" And her spirit
came again, and she arose straightway, and He commanded to give her
meat. Now, what do you think the disciples were thinking now? I mean these old simple Simon,
a fisherman. I mean, just a few months ago
now, he was down there tending the nets. And now what was he
going through? I mean, a dream. I mean, a dream,
he thought. But now he was convinced. Listen
to me, man. This is a God-given lesson to
you. He was convinced now, this has got to be the Christ. This
has got to be the Son of the living God. And look at it back
in Matthew chapter 16 with me. One day they walked along. Peter, old Simon, after he'd
seen all of this, he'd heard his voice. Verse 13. of Matthew sixteen. They walked
along one day, in verse thirteen, it says, When Jesus came to the
coast of Caesarea Philippi, he turned, turned around and asked
his disciples, they were walking along now, and he turned around
and said, Whom men say thou in? What's everybody saying about
that? And they began to say, well,
some say he's John the Baptist, some say you're John the Baptist,
some say you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, one of the
prophets. And he turned and pointed to Peter. He said, and he points
at you, but who do you say that I am? I hear what the world's
saying about me, but who do you say that I am? And Peter has
been welling up inside him all this time. And finally, he said,
You're the Christ. That's who you are. He said it
where everybody could hear it. You are the Christ. I know you
are. I've seen you do these things.
I've heard your voice. You've got to be the Christ,
aren't you? You're the Son of the Living God. That's who you
are. He knew it. And you know, one
day, like old Simon Peter, we heard his voice. We've seen his
marvelous miracles in our lives, his providence, his provisions,
his mercy, sustaining grace, His constraining grace in our
lives, all of our lives. We heard His Word. We saw Christ
hanging on that cross. And one day we said, just like
this man, He's the Christ. He's my Redeemer. He's my Messiah. He's the One. He's the Son of
God. He's nobody else. No mere mortal
man here. This is my only hope. He's the
long-awaited Messiah, my Redeemer. That's who He is. Oh, boy. And verse 17, look at
what Christ said to him. Jesus answered and said to him,
Oh, blessed are ye. Oh, simple, simple, Simon. You're
a blessed, blessed man. You know, I remember one time
when they came in after healing some devils, Lord, we got some
devils out of some fellows. He said, fellows, that ain't
nothing. Don't rejoice in that. You rejoice
in this, that you understand and know me. You rejoice in that
you know who I am. Because that is the greatest
miracle of God Almighty. Great is the mystery of godliness. He was actually believed on by
simple simons like us. I mean just up and fishing and
one day we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Do you see this story here? Blessed are you who understand
who I am. And verse 18, look at it, and
he said, I say also unto thee. Well, let's read the rest of
verse 17. Simon bar Jonah, son of Jonah. You're a blessed man,
flesh and blood. You didn't figure this thing
out on your own, did you? Flesh and blood didn't reveal this
to you. But my father, you're a chosen vessel, Simon. You don't
know it. You didn't know it. But God chose you in a covenant
before the foundation of the world. The Father, the Heavenly
Father and I, and the Holy Spirit got together and we talked about
this thing. We had you on our minds. And we thought, and we
said to ourselves, one day I'm coming down here and I'm going
redeem that old Simon, that old fisherman. Oh, he doesn't deserve
it, but I'm just going to go up and come down here and redeem
that fellow and show him the glory of God Almighty. Simon,
you're a blessed man." And I'm sure he said, Amen. Amen. And he said, verse 18, I say
also, I've got something else to say to you. I won't change
your name. Peter, a little rock, a little
stone, a little brick in the building, Moose, a living stone
in the building in God's church. And on this rock that is me,
me, the rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against me, and I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven. Whichever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he charged his disciples
that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. So Christ changed Simon's name
from simple Simon to Peter. And you know there was a time
somewhere that God changed our name from sinner to a son of
God. It was a time, I don't know when
it was, but He did it. He changed, behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
what? Sons of God. He changed your
name. Saint Henry! Think about it. Saint Henry, from simple Simon
to a child of God, from death unto life, from blindness unto
spiritual revelation and eyesight. And he gave us this same spirit
to teach us on our pilgrim way. So, now old simple Simon was
Peter. Peter. From a fisherman to a
saint, to an apostle, to a disciple. And the Lord gave him a little
bit of power. Stay with me now. This will be a blessing to you.
There's some Peters out there. I know there are. There's a Peter
standing up here. Now he got to feeling pretty
special, didn't he? His life shows it. We're going
to see it in a minute. He was somebody now. He wasn't just
an old fisherman anymore. About like me. I was a railroad.
Now I'm a... Somebody, he thought, he knew
something now. The Lord revealed some things
to him and he knew a little something. He knew a little something, could
do a few things. No longer just a simple fisherman. He now knew
some things and could do some things. He began to get a little
puffed up. Till one day, look here, I mean
this is right after, in the same chapter. Matthew 16, look at
it, verse 21. From that time forth, after the
Lord just dealt, or blessed old Peter, From that time forth,
Christ began to show unto his disciples how that he must go
into Jerusalem and suffer many things. He began to explain his
whole reason for being here, the gospel. Peter thought he
knew something, and the Lord began explaining the gospel to
him. His whole purpose, God's purpose and glory in Christ's
coming to redeem a people and having to die like the lamb slain
in the Old Testament. Without the shedding of blood,
he began to explain these things and how he was going to go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed and raised again. He must indeed
suffer, just like the Scriptures say, according to the Scripture.
And Peter, verse 22, look at it. Peter took him to the side. I'm sure he grabbed him. The
Lord was talking now. The Lord. And Peter grabbed him by the
arm. took him and began to say that
he was going to beat him. He said, look, Lord, you don't
need to go to Jerusalem now. This is, no, this is not going
to, we didn't do that. And look at what the Lord said.
He turned and said unto Peter, looking right in the man's face,
get thee behind me, Satan. What do you think Peter thought?
I mean, he just told him he was a blessed man. And that God would
reveal some things to him. And he pointed in his face and
said, get behind me, Satan. I crushed the man, I'm sure.
They crushed him. So I don't know. He was dumbfounded. You know he was. You're a fence
under me. You savor not the things that
be of God, but those that be of man." The devil was in that
man at that time. Think about it. And the Lord
looked at Peter and said, Well, six days later, look at
chapter 17. Six days later, verse 1. After six days, Christ took
Peter. And James and John, I bet Peter
didn't say much for those next six days, did he? I bet he was
pretty quiet. Everybody else heard that, did
they? I bet his pride was killed. After six days, he thought his
pride was amazed. He thought it was. After six
days, he took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and brought
them up into a high mountain, a park. and was transfigured
before them. And his face that shined as the
sun, and his raiment was white as light. They got a little glimpse
of his true glory, who he really was. And behold, there appeared
unto him Moses and Elijah talking with him. And Peter started to
open his big mouth again. He was seeing all this. He said, Jesus and Lord, this
is great. This is just great. It's good
that we're here. Lord, if it's OK with you, there's
four. If it's OK with you, let's make
three. Let's make three monuments here, one to Moses, one. And
we'll give you one to look at verse five. While he was speaking,
while Peter was the words were coming out of his mouth, a bright
cloud overshadowed them and the whole voice of the cloud said,
And this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear
ye Him." And when the disciples heard
it, they fell on their face. Fell on their face. In other
words, the Lord was telling Peter, Wasn't it? And listen to Christ. And look at verse 6. When they
finally got up off their faces. Verse 7. Jesus came and touched
them and said, Arise, be not afraid. And when they lifted
up their eyes, they saw no man but Him. And old Simon thought, I'm never
going to speak again. You ever said this? Huh? Have
you? And Simon, old simple Simon said,
I'm never going to open my big mouth again. He did. He did. Listen, listen
on. Well on they followed. Three
years they were with him, witnessing hundreds and hundreds of thousands. Scripture says if the books contain
all the miracles, the books in all the world can hold the things
that he did and said. I mean, it was one after the
other. Wherever they went, they were just watching and beholding
all these marvelous miracles and hearing his words of wisdom,
eating with him, drinking with him, getting to know him and
love him. Peter was now, he was totally convinced. Now, Henry,
he knew who Christ, that he was the Christ. He knew this. Christ
had just confirmed the fact that God had revealed to him who he
was. He was a saved man. Yes, he was. Peter was a saved
man. The Lord reveals Himself. If
you know who Christ is, you're a saved man. That is salvation. And Peter knew it. Peter had
now grown to truly love Him. Look back at Luke 22. back at
Luke chapter 22. Then one day, Luke chapter 22, one day as they
walked toward Jerusalem, now Peter and the disciples were
getting a little nervous. The Lord had told them some things
and they heard a little bit of it, not much, but they knew that
the crowd in Jerusalem, the people, the rulers of the synagogue hated
Christ. And they knew they were out to
get him. They knew this thing. This thing wasn't done in the corner.
They knew that people were angry with this man. And they were
out to get him. And they were getting scared.
And Christ told Peter and somebody else to go ahead of them and
go to a house and get some things ready to eat a supper, the Passover,
with them. So they did. And they stopped
at this house to eat. And Peter and John, who it was,
went ahead to prepare. And as they sat in this upper
room eating that evening before they were going to Jerusalem,
it says here in verse 31, Christ turned to Peter, Luke 22, 31,
look at it, and the Lord said, He called him by his old name,
Nancy. He called him Peter. Oh, poor, simple Simon. Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you. You've heard of Job, hadn't you?
Satan wants you too. that he might sift you like wheat." And the same thing holds true
for us Simons, us simple little Simons. You're a child of God
now. Satan desires you, doesn't he,
Moose? He walks about the earth like
a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Now, everybody
of the world is under his clutches, it's obvious. But Henry, John,
Stephen, he wants to sift you like wheat. We wouldn't be anything
for him, would we? And the Lord said this to Simon, and his heart ugly dropped. But, verse 32, I pray for you. That what? That you'll pray through. No. That you'll keep on keeping
on. No. That your faith fail not. What is our faith? Christ. Look
under me and be you safe. Faith is knowing who Christ is.
Simon, I prayed for you that you'll know who I am. You'll
remember. You're only hope, you're only helping. Keep looking to
me. And you know He prayed for us too. There in John 17, he
prayed for us too. I pray for not only them, but
for others that will also believe in my name. Joe, he says the
exact same thing that I see here. Satan's got you, he wants you,
but I'm praying for you. I'm sitting at the right hand
of the Father, right now, interceding for you. That your faith fail
not, that you keep looking to Christ. Lean to your own arm
or your flesh, and boy, he's got you. Satan has got you. right
where He wants you. But you keep clinging to the
cross, clinging to the foot of the cross, the feet of Christ. He can't touch you, can He? He
can't touch you. And then look at this, verse
32. This has always been a mystery to me. I hope the Lord will clear
this up. When you're converted, strengthen your brethren. I always
thought this meant when Peter got saved. When the Lord says,
that's not what that means at all there. I really don't believe
that's what that means. I believe the Lord is saying,
you're going to fall. You're going to fall into sin.
You're going to have a terrible fall. Peter was about to go through
the worst trial of his life. He was going to deny his Lord.
I mean, he was going to feel like he was gone forever. Lost
forever, wasn't it? Didn't it? He said, but when
this thing's all over, when it's over, after you leave and you
come back by God's mercy and grace, after all this is over
and you settle down, you grow up a little bit, you mature in
Christ just a little bit, you start strengthening your brethren.
You tell them what I've done for you. That's how you strengthen the
brethren, isn't it? Tell them what great things the Lord's done
for you. But look at this, but old Peter
spoke up. Verse 33. Lord, I'm ready to
go to prison with you. That's me. Man, oh, this is me. This is
the story of my life. get my mouth just closed and
humiliated before God by some sin, something I've done, and
think, oh, I'm nothing, I'm nobody, and then get puffed up and think
you're somebody, and then get brought down again and think
you're nobody, and back up again and think you're somebody, think
you know something, and then you realize you don't know anything.
Say, I'm never going to speak again,
and then five minutes later you're opening your big mouth and putting
your sized hands in it. Peter said, Lord, I'll go to
the prison with you. Verse 34. Our long-suffering,
gracious Lord. He could have any time, he just
could have any time said, Peter, I'm tired of your foolishness.
Go on, I'm through with you. Couldn't he? Not our merciful
Lord. Not our long-suffering master.
Uh-uh. He said, verse 34. I know what
you say. I know what you say in Peter.
But I tell you, the cops shall not crow this day before you've
denied me three times. Well, back at Matthew 26. I have
to keep making you turn back and forth. It's different. There's
additions here and there. Matthew 26. Now Judas had betrayed
our Lord. Satan entered into him. And one
night, as they were sleeping in the garden, everybody but
our Lord, that is, our Lord was praying all night long, swept
as great drops of blood, His agony in the garden. And this
band of religious leaders, it wasn't soldiers. I was always
under the impression it was soldiers. No, no. This was deacons and
elders from the Southern Baptist Church downtown. That's who it
was. Leaders and rulers, captains
of the synagogue, the scripture says. Came with swords and staves
to get this false prophet, they thought. And they came, and they
seized Christ and led Him away. And look at verse 57. Verse 57
of Matthew 26. And they that had laid hold on
Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes
and elders were assembled. But Peter followed, Lord Peter. Look at him, a far off, hiding
in the shadows. Followed him a far off under
the high priest's palace and went in. He got up that much
courage and sat with the servants to see, you know, how this thing
might turn out. Verse 59, the chief priests and
elders and all the council sought false witness. against Christ
to put him to death. They found him. But anyway, Peter
followed in the far off, and they reached this judgment hall.
Now, this was a kind of a waiting room before you went into the
court itself. And they were sitting outside
in this open-air judgment, or this open-air hallway before
you went into the courtroom. It's an open-air place. And somebody
built a fire. They were sitting there, and
they were waiting to take Christ in, waiting for when the high
priest could see and the court could see Christ. Everybody sat
around this fire warming their hands. It was kind of cold. Christ,
they were cruel to him. They had taken him like a hardened
criminal. And they had him over to the side, bound up over to
the side, and while everybody else was over there warming their
hands around the fire. And Peter, you know, was warming his hands
too there with a bunch of them. It was kind of dark. Christ was
over to the side. And verse 69, where's the verse
69? Now, Peter sat without in the
palace. Now, they'd start beating on
Christ and so forth. And Peter was witnessing. He
wasn't jumping to his rescue, was he? And verse 69, they sat
without in the palace, and a young lady came by, a little girl perhaps,
and said, You were with him. Now, you were with this Jesus
of Galilee. But Peter, in verse 70, said
that he denied before them all. No, no, no. Everybody looked
at him. Were you mad? Oh, no, no, no. I don't know
him. You ever been in a crowd of people
where you had the opportunity to say something on your Lord's
behalf and didn't say anything? That's
as much as saying, I don't know him either, isn't it? He denied before them all. Verse
71, And when he was gone out into the porch, another young
lady, a young maid, saw him, and said unto him, This fellow,
that fellow is with this Jesus of Nazareth. And again, verse
72, he denied with an oath. I don't know the man, the hush
woman. Then you think about this now. And look at this, verse 73, And
after a while it came unto him that stood by and said to Peter,
There is no denying it. You were with him. Surely you
are one of them. Your speech, you talk like the
man. Verse 74, He began to curse and
swear. He reverted back to old Simon
the fisherman, didn't he? I don't know the man And Mark, the Gospel of Mark
says, the Lord looked at him. The Lord ever looked at you for
denying him? He'd go out and weep bitterly.
Peter went out and wept bitterly. And he thought, Now you just
know, now the man thought... I guess I never knew him. And he, all kind of doubts were
going through his, I guess he's not who I thought he was. You
ever been there? I guess I'm not a believer. I don't know if I'm safe or not.
I don't know if this thing's even real. You ever been there? I don't know. I just don't know." Poor old Semple Simon. But in spite of Peter's lies,
the great moment of truth had come. Christ said, for this hour
I came. Peter didn't know it, but this
was God's glorious moment here in Christ. Christ's time had
come. You see, he had come down here as a man. And He had established
righteousness as a man. He lived a perfect life as a
man for some men and some women. A perfect life. And then sometime
before He got on that cross, when He got lifted up on that
cross, sometime before that, He took that righteous life that
He had, that perfection that He had established as a man,
as a human being. Sometime, miraculously, And the
power of God, He took that and bestowed it on old Simon.
And Simon Henry and Simon Joe, Simon Nancy put it on us. And Him took our sins, our guilt,
our unbelief, our denial of Him. Everything about us on Him. And
He went up to that cross and hung there. And God saw Him as
us and punished Him in our place. And Christ bled and died, paid
the penalty for his precious blood. And then he rose again. He rose again. But he bled and died. And old
Peter, he watched it all in the shadows. He sat back watching
this all. He was confused. He was sad.
He was sorrowful. And he probably thought, It's
all over. You know, in the face of this
trial, he quickly forgot. I mean, anyway, it wasn't too
long ago. You're the Christ. I know you are. You're the Son
of God. I believe you're the Messiah. Now he thought it's
all over. It's all over. But after three
days, now look over John 21. John chapter 21. After three
days, You know, time has a way of healing things, doesn't it?
After three days, Peter's eyes dried up. He started forgetting
about his problems, his troubles. He even forgot about the Lord. He forgot all about this stuff.
He went back to his old life. Oh, somebody came in, you know,
and said, Christ is risen, but he didn't believe it. Her. Didn't
he? One of the ladies came to this
side and said, He's risen, but they didn't believe it. Didn't
believe it. And he finally said, I'm going
back fishing. Anybody want to go? Every one
of them. Yeah, hold on, we'll go with
you. We'll go fishing. Oh, there they are again. right
back where they started. Now, do you get the understanding? Does this relate to your life
at all? Henry, do you ever feel like, I'm right back to square
one. I ain't made any progress at
all. After all a lifetime of miracles and seeing the Lord. How many sermons have we heard?
How many gospel sermons have we heard? Father, two preachers
in your family, how many gospel sermons have you heard? How many
you forgot? And sometimes you get back to
where you think you don't, I don't know anything. I'm right back,
I'm not even saying anything. And here they are again, fishing. And our long suffering, merciful
Lord. He comes back again. Verse 1 of chapter 21. After these things, Christ showed
himself. After what things? The greatest things in the history
of the universe. Redemption of God's people. He showed himself again. They
were together, Simon, Peter, Thomas, Galditimus, Nathanael,
Canaan, the sons of Zebedee, the two other disciples. Simon
Peter said, I'm going fishing. They said, we'll go with you.
They went forth, got in their old boat. Scrubbed it up a little
bit, got their nets out. You know, they were going back
to work now. They didn't get their rods out, doing a little
pleasure fishing. They were going back to their
old life. They were hanging it all up.
When the morning was now come, verse 4, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples knew not that
it was Jesus. And Jesus said unto him, Children,
sirs, do you have any meat? They answered him, No. What did he do? The same thing. Cast your net over there. We toiled up. John said, It's the Lord. And Peter knew it. He didn't hide it. But he knew
it. In spite of all his sin and unbelief,
he knew it. And he dove over the ship to
get to it. He's his only hope, you see.
His only help. He had to get back to it. It's the Lord. And look at verse
15. So when they died, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, simple, simple
Simon, do you love me more than you
both? Huh? Do you? He said, yeah, Lord. You know I love you. He said,
well, feed my lambs. And he said unto him again the
second time, Simon? Simple, simple Simon. Do you
love me? Yea, Lord, you know I love you.
He said, feed my sheep. And he said unto him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? Peter was grieved. I'm sure he
remembered that he denied him three times. He was grieved because he asked
him again. He said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. Christ said, well, strengthen
your brethren. It's time. Peter, it's time to
quit playing games. It's time to get in the ministry.
Are you ready to put these boats down for good? Any Simons out there, you ready
to put this whole world down for good now? Start following
Christ. Anybody? Just one. Just one. Old Simon did, by the grace of
God. I want you to read with me as
we close what he read, what he wrote. Look at this. This will open up 1 Peter to
you. Like you've never seen it before
in light of all that. 1 Peter 1. Look at it. This will
be a blessing to you. 1 Peter 1. Look at verse 3.